Wallet Kickers of the Week

Kickstarter just launched a new way to find projects they like with the ‘Kickstarter Gold’ label, so lets get to some projects that may not be gold, but are at least silver.

First up is a board game based in the popular 7th Sea RPG setting and that is War of the Cross. War of the Cross is a “dudes on a map” type game similar to Risk, but plays very differently in that negotiation and alliances are key parts of the game. Each round has five steps to it beginning with negotiation, then orders, alliances, movement and battle, and finally spoils. Negotiation is where everyone at the tables negotiates and discusses the moves they will make on the board, this includes forming alliances verbally for that turn. From that phase you then place your orders secretly under your units and pick who you will ally with that round. If you both pick each other then you ally, fighting together as well as making it impossible to attack each other for that round. The fighting is deterministic with the army committing the most supplies being the winner. Winning the fights get you territories, points, and more supplies to use in later fights or to bid on story cards that give you special powers. First player to 25 points is the winner. So if this style of game sounds interesting, head on over to the Kickstarter page.

Next we have a cooperative miniatures game called Human Interface – Be a Better Human. This is both a stand alone game and an expansion to a previously Kickstarted game called Human Interface – Nakamura Tower. This new game maintains the cyberpunk setting and has you trying to escape form a black site prison that you were all thrown into. You will have to work together and fight both on the physical and the virtual fronts as you try to overcome the defenses and modified cyber soldiers blocking your way. Through the use of adrenaline cards to perform spectacular feats, and ‘Can Do’ cards to resolve battles, Be a Better Human is shaping up to be an interesting game. If you like this kind of cooperative style dungeon crawl game, check out the Kickstarter campaign today. And you can even back for an additional expansion module called Blood on the Floor for more characters, monsters, and tiles.

Looking for a light-hearted 4x game that is all about rabbits, well then Rabbit Island might be what you are looking for. The game plays out in three phases which have you exploring and laying out new tiles, building to convert camps into towns and cities, and finally scoring for what you conquered. The exploring part of the game is typical tile laying, but the tiles are uniquely shaped which allow for easy recognition of where you can place them, as the sides of the tile have to fit together path to path. Building has you playing cards to move and spending carrot tokens to build towns and cities. Did you run out of carrot tokens? Then stop by event spaces or carrot patches to refill on those all important tokens. In the conquer phase you will earn points for the towns you built and at the end you earn bonus points for the most carrots and the biggest harvest field. So if you are in the mood for this kind of 4x experience, head on over to the Kickstarter page.

Up next is not a game, but a book about gaming called GameTek: The Book. Listeners of The Dice Tower will no doubt recognize that the book is named after the segment put out by friend of the Dice Tower, Geoff Engelstein. This book compiles ten years of the GameTek segments into one single place, updating and illustrating them, creating a bit of a board game reference book on the math and science of gaming. The book will be broken up into seven sections; Game Theory, Math, Psychology, Science, Game Mechanics, Psychology Games, and History, with essays and examples of each. So if you want to support an exceptional member of the board gaming community, or if you can’t get enough of the math and science of board games, check out the Kickstarter today!

Last for have a project that has been certified as Kickstarter Gold, and that is Rival Realms, a two player variation on the deck building game Fantastiqa. The art of the game carries over with very whimsical and magical depictions of things, but the game itself is now very different. Gone is the focus on deck building and now the focus is squarely on the exploration aspect the bigger game offered. On your turn you can use cards to either discover new areas, or to explore an area on the board already. But exploring comes with a drawback because you have to discard cards into your opponents discard in order to do so, giving them access to cards they may not have had before. There are also quests that you are working towards and the first person to achieve the quest gets to take the card, the second person to achieve it gets nothing. Play keeps going until all the quests have been claimed, and then whoever has the most points is the winner. Check out the Kickstarter page if this sounds like a good two-player game for you.